APNewsBreak: Iowa State rented plane while idling its own

Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press

December 1, 2016Updated: December 1, 2016 10:51am

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State University spent up to $225 per hour to rent an airplane for President Steven Leath to fly himself to meetings on multiple occasions even as an older school plane that he piloted sat unused.

The university rented the plane from prominent Ames landlord Brent Haverkamp, who was later awarded a lease to store his planes in an Iowa State hangar after the school evicted a longtime tenant, documents obtained by The Associated Press under the open records law show.

At the time of the rentals in 2013 and 2014, the university owned a four-seat Piper plane that Leath had routinely flown. Leath spokeswoman Megan Landolt said the 1978 Piper was slower than Haverkamp's 2004 Cirrus, needed safety and avionics upgrades, and was "therefore not efficient for the kind of travel done on these five occasions."

Leath's plane rentals and relationship with Haverkamp — whose large apartment rental business has boomed amid Iowa State's recent enrollment growth — add new layers to the flight scandal that has roiled his presidency.

The Board of Regents is auditing all flights that Leath and others have taken in the university's airplanes since 2012, saying that a number of trips appear to be questionable. The audit was ordered after The Associated Press reported that Leath damaged a university plane in a hard landing while returning home from a North Carolina vacation in July 2015 — and didn't tell the board president until after he was given a five-year contract extension the following month.

Leath has acknowledged that he damaged a private plane in a similar hard landing in August 2014 during a personal flight. Landolt would not confirm or deny whether the incident occurred in Haverkamp's plane.

Leath rented Haverkamp's plane for five official business trips around Iowa. The shortest was for a meeting in Cedar Falls, 95 miles from Ames. The roundtrip took 2.7 flight hours — saving roughly a half-hour compared to driving but costing $540. Other trips saved more time.

Haverkamp Properties initially billed the university $200 hourly, then increased the price to $225. In all, the rentals cost $2,630. Leath has argued that flying instead of driving saves him valuable time. Still, his employment contract gives Leath $1,500 monthly for a car allowance but is silent on flying.

Iowa State's final rental occurred July 29, 2014. That same day, the university acquired a Federal Aviation Administration certificate to fly a similar Cirrus that Leath decided to purchase for $498,000 using private donations. As part of the deal, the Piper was traded in for $28,000.

Iowa State and Haverkamp soon entered into an unusual but mutually beneficial relationship at the Ames airport, where the school owns two hangars.

In November 2014, Iowa State gave notice that it was evicting airport operator Hap's Air Service, which had rented the university's oldest hangar to store planes since 1997. The university had informed Hap's the prior week that it owed $800 for two months back rent, after the company had paid late on prior occasions.

Hap's operations manager Christa Holden disputed missing any payments and called the eviction infuriating. She said an Iowa State pilot told Hap's the eviction was necessary because the university was planning to raze the hangar to build a parking lot.

But on the day Hap's moved out, Holden said she was "absolutely gobsmacked" to see Haverkamp moving his newly-purchased Cessna in. Holden said, at the time, there was no other storage space at the airport for a plane that size.

A university lease agreement that began Feb. 1, 2015, shows Haverkamp and a partner agreed to spend $40,000 to renovate the hangar. In exchange, they could use the hangar without monthly rent payments for up to 5 ½ years.

Holden said the agreement smacks of favoritism.

"It's no secret that Haverkamp is a friend of Leath's," she said. "He needed a place to put his Cessna."

Landolt denied special treatment, saying Haverkamp was willing to take on the desperately-needed hangar renovation. Haverkamp hasn't responded to messages seeking comment for weeks.